Chillque

The Chillque, also written Chilque, were a highland people whose name was of Aymara origin, divided into Hanan and Urin moieties whose home lay around Lake Titicaca. They were a cluster of small tribes whom the Incas conquered alongside the Aymara, Umasuyu and Cotabamba nations.

The Incas made them trusted mitimaes, resettling loyal Chillque colonies far from the Collao to watch over newly conquered peoples; chroniclers even numbered them among the Inca de Privilegio, and by then they spoke Quechua. Chillque ayllus were planted in the Chili valley behind Arequipa to watch the migrant Yanahuara and Chumbivilca.

After the conquest Francisco Pizarro granted the Chillque, with the Yanahuara and Chumbivilca, to the encomendero Luis de León. Set to work in silver mines and textile workshops and ravaged by disease, the garrison communities shrank fast, with only thirty-two Chillque tributaries recorded in the Arequipa visitation of 1582.